Method and device for assigning video streams to watcher devices

ABSTRACT

A process for operating an electronic computing device to assign video streams to watcher devices. The electronic computing device detects objects of interest within a field-of-view of a camera as a function of incident context information. The electronic computing device obtains video display characteristics associated with watcher devices and further determines, based on respective positions of the objects of interest within the field-of-view, a plurality of sub-regions each enclosing at least one of the detected objects of interest and having one or more video attributes. The electronic computing device then assigns, based on the video display characteristics associated with the watcher devices and the video attributes of the sub-regions, each of the sub-regions to a respectively selected one of the watcher devices. The video streams respectively captured corresponding to each of the assigned sub-regions of interest are then transmitted to the respectively selected one of the watcher devices.

BACKGROUND

Public safety agencies often rely on watchers to manually screen videocaptured from public locations for detecting suspicious activities. Asmobile devices are increasingly used for video consumption, publicsafety organizations have also begun to stream video to mobile devicesof watchers such as first responders to allow them to screen an incidentarea for suspicious activities. While mobile devices allow portability,small screen sizes and other inherent limitations associated with mobiledevices can pose difficulties to watchers as video screening demandssubstantial attention from watchers. In addition, it can also bedifficult for a watcher to simultaneously screen multiple points ofinterest on a video feed covering a large incident area.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

In the accompanying figures similar or the same reference numerals maybe repeated to indicate corresponding or analogous elements. Thesefigures, together with the detailed description, below are incorporatedin and form part of the specification and serve to further illustratevarious embodiments of concepts that include the claimed invention, andto explain various principles and advantages of those embodiments.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a communication system in accordance withsome embodiments.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an electronic computing device shown inFIG. 1 in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 3 illustrates a flowchart of a method of operating an electroniccomputing device to assign video streams to watcher devices inaccordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of a graphical user interface implementedat an electronic computing device for assigning video streams to watcherdevices.

Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures areillustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily beendrawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements inthe figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to helpimprove understanding of embodiments of the present disclosure.

The apparatus and method components have been represented whereappropriate by conventional symbols in the drawings, showing only thosespecific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments ofthe present disclosure so as not to obscure the disclosure with detailsthat will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the arthaving the benefit of the description herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

As described above, it can be difficult for a watcher to simultaneouslywatch multiple points of interest from a video covering a large incidentarea. In such cases, each of these points of interest can be assigned toa different watcher for screening purposes. While it addresses oneproblem associated with screening multiple points of interest, watcherdevices (e.g., a mobile device) operated by a watcher to screen a videostream have certain device limitations that can have effect on thedisplay characteristics of the video stream. For example, watcherdevices may have limitations in terms of screen size, resolution,network bandwidth, aspect ratio, operating mode etc. It may be humanlyimpossible to assign multiple points of interest of a large incidentarea to multiple watcher devices while also taking into considerationthe unique attributes of each of these points of interest and thelimitations inherent in the watcher devices. Disclosed is an improvedmethod and device of assigning video streams corresponding to multiplepoints of interest to multiple watcher devices.

One embodiment provides a method of assigning video streams to watcherdevices. The method includes: obtaining, at an electronic computingdevice, context information associated with an incident; detecting, atthe electronic computing device, as a function of the contextinformation, a plurality of objects of interest within a field-of-viewof a camera; obtaining, at the electronic computing device, one or morevideo display characteristics associated with a plurality of watcherdevices; determining, at the electronic computing device, based onrespective positions of the objects of interest within thefield-of-view, a plurality of sub-regions of the field-of-view, each ofthe sub-regions enclosing at least one of the detected objects ofinterest and has one or more video attributes; assigning, at theelectronic computing device, based on the one or more video displaycharacteristics associated with the watcher devices and the one or morevideo attributes of the sub-regions, each of the sub-regions to arespectively selected one of the watcher devices; and causing, at theelectronic computing device, transmission of video streams respectivelycaptured corresponding to each of the assigned sub-regions of interestto the respectively selected one of the watcher devices.

Another embodiment provides an electronic computing device including atransceiver and an electronic processor communicatively coupled to thetransceiver. The electronic processor is configured to: obtain contextinformation associated with an incident; detect, as a function of thecontext information, a plurality of objects of interest within afield-of-view of a camera: obtain one or more video displaycharacteristics associated with a plurality of watcher devices;determine, based on respective positions of the objects of interestwithin the field-of-view, a plurality of sub-regions of thefield-of-view, each of the sub-regions enclosing at least one of thedetected objects of interest and has one or more video attributes;assign, based on the one or more video display characteristicsassociated with the watcher devices and the one or more video attributesof the sub-regions, each of the sub-regions to a respectively selectedone of the watcher devices; and cause transmission of video streamsrespectively captured corresponding to each of the assigned sub-regionsof interest to the respectively selected one of the watcher devices.

Each of the above-mentioned embodiments will be discussed in more detailbelow, starting with example system and device architectures of thesystem in which the embodiments may be practiced, followed by anillustration of processing blocks for achieving an improved technicalmethod, device, and system for assigning video streams to watcherdevices. Example embodiments are herein described with reference toflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus(systems) and computer program products according to exampleembodiments. It will be understood that each block of the flowchartillustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in theflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented bycomputer program instructions. These computer program instructions maybe provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, specialpurpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus toproduce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via theprocessor of the computer or other programmable data processingapparatus, create means for implementing the functions/acts specified inthe flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks. The methods andprocesses set forth herein need not, in some embodiments, be performedin the exact sequence as shown and likewise various blocks may beperformed in parallel rather than in sequence. Accordingly, the elementsof methods and processes are referred to herein as “blocks” rather than“steps.”

These computer program instructions may also be stored in acomputer-readable memory that can direct a computer or otherprogrammable data processing apparatus to function in a particularmanner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readablememory produce an article of manufacture including instructions whichimplement the function/act specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks.

The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer orother programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series ofoperational blocks to be performed on the computer or other programmableapparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that theinstructions which execute on the computer or other programmableapparatus provide blocks for implementing the functions/acts specifiedin the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks. It iscontemplated that any part of any aspect or embodiment discussed in thisspecification can be implemented or combined with any part of any otheraspect or embodiment discussed in this specification.

Further advantages and features consistent with this disclosure will beset forth in the following detailed description, with reference to thefigures.

Referring now to the drawings, and in particular FIG. 1, a communicationsystem 100 is shown including an electronic computing device 110communicatively coupled to a plurality of watcher devices 120-1 through120-n via a communication network 130. The plurality of watcher devices120-1, 120-2 . . . 120-n can be interchangeably referred to,collectively, as watcher devices 120, and generically as a watcherdevice 120. Each watcher device 120 may be operated by a respectivewatcher (e.g., a public safety personnel) who may carry or wear therespective watcher device 120. As used herein, the term “watcher” refersto a human user who can perform one or more visual functions (referredherein as watching, screening, monitoring, surveilling, etc.,) withrespect to a video stream displayed on a watcher device 120 for thepurposes of detecting anomalous objects, events, or persons in relationto an assigned incident. The term “watcher” may also refer to anautonomous machine that is configured to perform real-time videoanalytics on a video stream displayed on a watcher device 120. Inaccordance with embodiments, each watcher device 120 includes anelectronic display (not shown) that is configured to display arespective video stream assigned by the electronic computing device 110.The watcher devices 120 may take the form of a mobile phone or aportable two-way radio carried by public safety personnel, a computertablet, a laptop, a vehicular display, a smart wearable, for example, asmart glass or smart watch, and the like.

The electronic computing device 110 may take the form of a fixed or amobile computing device that is integrated or otherwise communicativelycoupled to one or more cameras (not shown) to capture a video stream inits field-of-view corresponding to a geographic region to be monitoredby multiple watchers. In accordance with some embodiments, theelectronic computing device 110 is automatically configured to assignmultiple video streams captured from within the field-of-view of thecamera corresponding to the geographic region to multiple watcherdevices 120 to enable each video stream to be independently andseparately monitored by a different watcher via a respective watcherdevice 120. For example, a public safety commander assigned to respondto a particular incident may point a camera toward a geographical region(also referred to as an incident region) associated with the incident tobe monitored and in response, the electronic computing device 110automatically identifies multiple sub-regions within the field-of-viewof the camera and further performs an assignment of each sub-region to adifferent watcher device 120 to enable a watcher associated with thewatcher device 120 to monitor only a video stream corresponding to aparticularly assigned sub-region. In particular, the sub-regions areidentified by the electronic computing device 110 to ensure that eachsub-region encloses at least one object of interest that isautomatically detected from the field-of-view corresponding to theincident region. For example, the incident region may correspond to aregion in a sports stadium on which multiple objects of interest areautomatically identified for watching.

The communication system 100 includes an incident database 140 thatstores context information associated with one or more incidentsassigned to a public safety personnel operating the electronic computingdevice 110. The incident database 140 may be stored at a memory device(e.g., local memory or a cloud memory) that is accessible by theelectronic computing device 110. The context information includes, foreach incident, an incident identifier (e.g., a computer aided dispatch(CAD) identifier), type or severity of incident, incident location,public safety personnel assigned to respond to the incident, metadatarelated to persons (e.g., facial characteristics), objects (e.g., bagsetc.,), or areas of interest (e.g., particular seats or areas in astadium) (collectively referred to as objects of interest) that need tobe monitored in relation to an incident, and user or device profile(e.g., talk group/video group identifier, video display characteristicsof associated devices etc.,) corresponding to public safety personnelassigned to respond to the incident. In accordance with someembodiments, the electronic computing device 110 identifies watcherdevices 120 for monitoring video streams corresponding to a particularincident region based on the user or device profile corresponding to thepublic safety personnel already assigned to the incident as obtainedfrom the incident database 140. In accordance with some embodiments, theelectronic computing device 110 automatically detects objects ofinterest (i.e., persons, objects, or areas to be monitored in relationto an incident) from a field-of-view of a camera using the incidentcontext information obtained from the incident database 140. Forexample, if the incident context information requires monitoring ofareas with particular objects of interest such as a person with a “redcap,” then the electronic computing device 110 scans the field-of-viewof the camera looking for a person with “a red cap.” In this example,the electronic computing device 110 may be configured with an objectclassifier that evaluates an image captured corresponding to thefield-of-view of the camera to determine if an instance of a person witha “red cap” as programmed in the object classifier is detected or notfrom the image. If an object of interest, i.e., the instance of theperson with a “red cap” is detected, the electronic computing device 110identifies the position (e.g., spatial coordinates) of the object ofinterest within the field-of-view of the camera corresponding to anincident region selected by public safety personnel assigned to theincident. Accordingly, in accordance with some embodiments, when theelectronic computing device 110 identifies multiple such objects ofinterest based on the context information, the electronic computingdevice 110 makes a determination to employ multiple watcher devices 120to screen multiple video streams that are captured corresponding to theincident region. In this case, the electronic computing device 110automatically determines a plurality of sub-regions of the field-of-viewbased on the respective positions of the objects of interest within thefield-of-view. The sub-regions (i.e., a space within the field-of-viewthat needs to be separately monitored) are determined to ensure thateach sub-region encloses at least one of the identified objects ofinterest.

The electronic computing device 110 is configured to assign each of thesub-regions to a respectively selected one of the watcher devices 120based on one or more video display characteristics associated with thewatcher devices 120 and the one or more video attributes of thesub-regions. In accordance with some embodiments, the electroniccomputing device 110 uses video display characteristics including asize, shape, orientation, aspect ratio, resolution, rotatability,expandability, or foldability of an electronic display associated with awatcher device 120 to determine whether a particular watcher device 120is suitable to be assigned to watch a particular one of the sub-regions.For example, a sub-region may have a video attribute requiring a widedisplay area that cannot be rotated. In this case, the sub-region (i.e.,a video stream corresponding to the sub-region) is assigned to a watcherdevice 120 having a large wide display area. Similarly, a sub-regionwith a small display area may be assigned to a watcher device 120 havinga small display area (e.g., watch display). In some embodiments, theelectronic computing device 110 may rearrange or re-shape thesub-regions until the video attributes of the sub-regions each enclosingat least one of the objects of interest correlates with at least one ofthe watcher devices 120 available for screening video streams capturedcorresponding to the sub-regions. In this manner, the electroniccomputing device 110 ensures that each sub-region is separatelymonitored by a different watcher via a respectively assigned watcherdevice 120 that has the video display characteristics suitable fordisplaying the sub-region with its associated video attributes. In oneembodiment, the electronic computing device 110 also usescharacteristics such as network bandwidth and cognitive load associatedwith a watcher device 120 to determine if a particular watcher device120 is suitable to be assigned to watch a particular one of thesub-regions. In another embodiment, the electronic computing device alsouses characteristics of the object of interest such as a watch priorityof the objects of interest and a number of objects of interest includedin a particular sub-region as the basis for identifying a watcher device120 for screening a sub-region enclosing such objects of interest.

In accordance with some embodiments, the electronic computing device 110may affiliate to a video communication group of a public safetypersonnel assigned to the incident for the purpose of assigning videostreams to watcher devices 120. For example, when the electroniccomputing device 110 makes a determination that a particular incidentregion includes multiple sub-regions each enclosing at least one objectof interest to be monitored and further each of the multiple sub-regionsare to be independently monitored by a separate watcher device 120, theelectronic computing device 110 obtains the user or device profile ofpublic safety personnel assigned to the incident and further assigns allor a subset of the public safety personnel assigned to the incident tothe role of watchers. The electronic computing device 110 associateswith or otherwise forms a video communication group with the watcherdevices 120 associated with the public safety personnel assigned to therole of watchers. The electronic computing device 110 then establishes avideo session for the watcher devices 120 included in the videocommunication group for simultaneously streaming video streamscorresponding to different sub-regions of the selected incident regionto watcher devices 120 to which the video streams are respectivelyassigned. In accordance with some embodiments, the electronic computingdevice 110 and watcher devices 120 operate using a Push-to-Video (PTV)technology. With PTV technology, the electronic computing device 110 hasthe option of sharing a live video capture including multiple videostreams each corresponding to a sub-region of an incident region tomembers of a particular video communication group by pressing adedicated PTV button implemented at the electronic computing device 110.In accordance with some embodiments, when the public safety personnelpress the PTV button, the electronic computing device 110 begins tocapture a field-of-view of a camera coupled to the electronic computingdevice 110 and then performs an assignment of video streams to watcherdevices 120 in accordance with the embodiments described herein. In someembodiments, the electronic computing device 110 sends instructionsregarding the assignment to one or more external cameras (e.g., dronecameras, vehicle cameras, video surveillance cameras, etc.,) deployed inthe incident area, and in response, the one or more external camerascapture video stream of the sub-regions to the respective watcherdevices 120 to which the sub-regions are assigned in accordance with theassignment instructions received from the electronic computing device110.

The communication network 130 is an electronic communications networkincluding wired and wireless connections. The communication network 130may be implemented using a combination of one or more networksincluding, but not limited to, a wide area network, for example, theinternet; a local area network, for example, a Wi-Fi network, or anear-field network, for example, a Bluetooth™ network. Other types ofnetworks, for example, a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network, a GlobalSystem for Mobile Communications (or Groupe Special Mobile (GSM))network, a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) network, anEvolution-Data Optimized (EV-DO) network, an Enhanced Data Rates for GSMEvolution (EDGE) network, a 3G network, a 4G network, a 5G network, andcombinations or derivatives thereof may also be used.

FIG. 2 is an example functional block diagram of an electronic computingdevice operating within the communication system 100 in accordance withsome embodiments. The electronic computing device performs the functionsof the electronic computing device 110 shown in FIG. 1, and may beembodied in one or more communication devices or computing devices notillustrated in FIG. 1, and/or may be a distributed computing deviceacross two or more of the foregoing (or multiple of a same type of oneof the foregoing) and linked via a wired and/or wireless communicationlink(s). While FIG. 2 represents an electronic computing device 110described above with respect to FIG. 1, depending on the type ofelectronic computing device 110, the electronic computing device 110 mayinclude fewer or additional components in configurations different fromthat illustrated in FIG. 2. For example, in some embodiments, theelectronic computing device 110 acting as an infrastructure controllermay not include one or more of the screen 205, microphone 220, camera221 (which may be an external camera coupled to the infrastructurecontroller), and speaker 222. As another example, in some embodiments,the electronic computing device 110 may be a communication device (e.g.,used by public safety personnel assigned to monitor an incident scene)that includes one or more of the screen 205, microphone 220, camera 221,and speaker 222. Other combinations are possible as well.

As shown in FIG. 2, the electronic computing device 110 includes acommunications unit 202 coupled to a common data and address bus 217 ofa processing unit 203. The electronic computing device 110 may alsoinclude one or more input devices 206, for example, keypad, pointingdevice, touch-sensitive surface, button, and the like. In oneembodiment, the input device 206 may include a hard or soft PTV buttonor interface which when selected by the user causes the electroniccomputing device 110 to automatically assign video streams correspondingto an incident region to watcher devices 120 associated with a videogroup and further establish a PTV session with watcher devices 120 totransmit respectively assigned video streams to the watcher devices 120associated with the video group. The electronic computing device 110also includes a microphone 220, a camera 221, and an electronic displayscreen 205 (which, in some embodiments, may be a touch screen and thusalso acts as an input device), each coupled to be in communication withthe processing unit 203.

The camera 221 captures video corresponding to its field-of-view forfurther processing by the processing unit 203 and/or for furthertransmission as a video stream by the communications unit 202 to thewatcher devices 120. A speaker 222 may be present for reproducing audiothat is decoded from voice or audio streams of calls received via thecommunications unit 202 from other devices, from digital audio stored atthe electronic computing device 110, from other ad-hoc or direct modedevices, and/or from an infrastructure RAN device, or may playback alerttones or other types of pre-recorded audio.

The processing unit 203 may include a code Read Only Memory (ROM) 212coupled to the common data and address bus 217 for storing data forinitializing system components. The processing unit 203 may furtherinclude an electronic processor 213 (for example, a microprocessor oranother electronic device) coupled, by the common data and address bus217, to a Random Access Memory (RAM) 204 and a static memory 216.

The communications unit 202 may include one or more wired and/orwireless input/output (I/O) interfaces 209 that are configurable tocommunicate, for example, with watcher devices 120 in the system 100.For example, the communications unit 202 may include one or morewireless transceivers 208, such as a DMR transceiver, a P25 transceiver,a Bluetooth transceiver, a Wi-Fi transceiver perhaps operating inaccordance with an IEEE 802.11 standard (for example, 802.11a, 802.11b,802.11g), an LTE transceiver, a WiMAX transceiver perhaps operating inaccordance with an IEEE 802.16 standard, and/or another similar type ofwireless transceiver configurable to communicate via a wireless radionetwork. The communications unit 202 may additionally or alternativelyinclude one or more wireline transceivers 208, such as an Ethernettransceiver, a USB transceiver, or similar transceiver configurable tocommunicate via a twisted pair wire, a coaxial cable, a fiber-opticlink, or a similar physical connection to a wireline network. Thetransceiver 208 is also coupled to a combined modulator/demodulator 210.

The one or more electronic processors 213 has ports for coupling to thedisplay screen 205, the microphone 220, the camera 221, the user inputinterface device 206, and/or the speaker 222. Static memory 216 maystore operating code 225 for the electronic processor 213 that, whenexecuted, performs one or more of the blocks set forth in FIG. 3 and theaccompanying text(s). The static memory 216 may comprise, for example, ahard-disk drive (HDD), an optical disk drive such as a compact disk (CD)drive or digital versatile disk (DVD) drive, a solid state drive (SSD),a tape drive, a flash memory drive, or a tape drive, and the like. Inaccordance with some embodiments, the static memory 216 may have accessto or otherwise temporarily or permanently store information included inthe incident database 140. For example, the electronic computing device110 may be configured to store incident context information associatedwith a particular CAD identifier assigned to the electronic computingdevice 110 at the static memory 216. The static memory 216 may alsoobtain and store video display characteristics associated with aplurality of watcher devices 120, for example, watcher devices 120 thatare specifically associated with public safety personnel assigned to aparticular CAD identifier corresponding to which video streamsassociated with an incident region are to be screened.

In accordance with some embodiments, the display screen 205 implementedat the electronic computing device 110 is configured to display a viewof an image or images that are captured corresponding to a field-of-viewof an incident region when the process (e.g., process 300 described withreference to FIG. 3) for assigning video streams to watcher devices 120is invoked. The display screen 205 is also configured to visuallyindicate the multiple sub-regions of the incident region capturedcorresponding to the field-of-view of the camera, where the sub-regionsare determined by the electronic processor 213 based on the positions ofthe detected objects of interest. The display screen 205 may alsohighlight one or more objects of interest enclosed within each of thesub-region and further visually identify the watcher devices 120 towhich video streams corresponding to each of the sub-regions areassigned. In accordance with embodiments, the display screen 205 mayalso provide visual indication of watcher status corresponding to eachof the sub-regions. For example, the electronic computing device 110 mayreceive feedback indicating whether the watcher is activelywatching/screening (e.g., detected based on eye-gaze of the watcher) thevideo stream captured corresponding to a particular sub-region assignedto the watcher. If the feedback received by the electronic computingdevice 110 indicates that the watcher is not actively watching/screening(i.e., inactive status), then the display screen 205 may provide anindication of an inactive status on a sub-region assigned to thewatcher. The public safety personnel operating the electronic computingdevice 110 may then command the electronic computing device 110 toreassign the sub-region with an inactive watcher status to anotheravailable watcher in accordance with the embodiments described herein.

Turning now to FIG. 3, a flowchart diagram illustrates a process 300 foroperating an electronic computing device 110 to assign video streams towatcher devices 120 in accordance with some embodiments. While aparticular order of processing steps, message receptions, and/or messagetransmissions is indicated in FIG. 3 as an example, timing and orderingof such steps, receptions, and transmissions may vary where appropriatewithout negating the purpose and advantages of the examples set forth indetail throughout the remainder of this disclosure. An electroniccomputing device 110 shown in FIG. 1 and/or electronic computing device110 shown in FIG. 2, and embodied as a singular computing device ordistributed computing device may execute process 300 via an electronicprocessor 224 implemented at the electronic computing device 110. Theelectronic computing device 110 may execute the process 300 at power-on,at some predetermined periodic time period thereafter, in response to atrigger raised locally at the device via an internal process or via aninput interface (e.g., the user invoking the process 300 by pointing acamera at an incident region and/or by initiating a PTV session, forexample, by pressing a PTV button implemented at the electroniccomputing device 110), or in response to a trigger from an accessory oran authorized external device to which the electronic computing device110 is communicably coupled, among other possibilities.

The process 300 of FIG. 3 need not be performed in the exact sequence asshown and likewise various blocks may be performed in different order oralternatively in parallel rather than in sequence. The process 300 maybe implemented on variations of the system 100 of FIG. 1 as well.

Process begins at block 310 where the electronic computing device 110obtains context information associated with an incident. As previouslydescribed, the electronic computing device 110 may obtain contextinformation associated with an incident in response to a trigger that israised locally at the electronic computing device 110 or in response toa trigger received from an accessory or an external device (e.g., fromremote speaker microphone operated by the public safety commander). Forexample, when a public safety commander operating the electroniccomputing device 110 points a camera toward a real world space, theelectronic computing device 110 automatically (or based on input fromthe commander) extracts CAD ID of an incident assigned to the publicsafety commander and further obtains context information associated withthe CAD ID of the incident, for example, from the incident database 140.The context information may include metadata identifying informationrelated to objects of interest (e.g., determined based on historicalincidents) that need to be monitored in relation to a current incidentassigned to the public safety commander. The metadata may includecharacteristics such as facial feature of a person, a hair color, a skintone, a tattoo, a birthmark, an eye color, a body shape, a feature of anarticle worn by a person (color or pattern of jewelry, watch, clothes,backpack, shoe etc., worn by a person), a feature of an inanimate objectsuch as object type (e.g., bag make, type), shape, color, pattern. Inone embodiment, the metadata may also include information about certainsub-regions or sub-areas (e.g., parking area, VIP entrance, pre-definedseat numbers or sections etc.,) of a large incident area that isrequired to be monitored for public safety reasons. These sub-regions orareas may correspond to areas where the probability of occurrence ofabnormal or suspicious activities is very high.

Next, at block 320, the electronic computing device 110 detects, as afunction of the context information obtained at block 310, a pluralityof objects of interest within a field-of-view of a camera. The cameramay be internally implemented at the electronic computing device 110 oralternatively the camera may be an external device that iscommunicatively coupled to the electronic computing device 110. In anycase, when the camera is activated to capture a field-of-view of a realworld space and further when the process 300 is invoked based on a localor external trigger, the electronic computing device 110 scans an imageor images captured corresponding to a field-of-view of the camera usingthe context information to detect one or more instances of objects ofinterests that are identified in the incident context informationobtained at block 310. In accordance with some embodiments, theelectronic computing device 110 may use object classifiers correspondingto each object of interest identified in the incident contextinformation to determine if there is an instance of an object ofinterest in the image that is captured corresponding to the camera'sfield of view.

If the electronic computing device 110 does not detect any object ofinterest within the field-of-view of the camera, the electroniccomputing device 110 may adjust the camera field-of-view automaticallyor by requesting the user to move the camera to cover a new space withinthe incident region and further scan an image captured corresponding tothe adjusted field-of-view covering the new space for the purpose ofdetecting one or more objects of interest as identified in the incidentcontext information. The electronic computing device 110 may repeat thisprocess to scan the entire incident region to detect multiple objects ofinterest as a function of the incident context information. In oneembodiment, if the electronic computing device 110 does not detect anyobjects of interest or otherwise detects only one object of interest asa function of the incident information, the electronic computing device110 may proceed to skip the execution of the process blocks 330 through360, and instead may proceed to assign a single video stream coveringthe larger incident area to a single selected watcher device 120. On theother hand, if the electronic computing device 110 detects a pluralityof objects of interest within the field-of-view of the camera as afunction of the incident context information, the electronic computingdevice 110 assigns video streams captured from the incident region tomultiple watcher devices 120 as described herein with reference to theprocess blocks 330 through 360.

Next, at block 330, when the electronic computing device 110 detectsmultiple objects of interest within the field-of-view of the camera, theelectronic computing device 110 obtains one or more video displaycharacteristics associated with a plurality of watcher devices 120. Inaccordance with some embodiments, the electronic computing device 110identifies a plurality of watcher devices 120 using user or deviceprofiles of public safety personnel assigned to the incident. Forexample, the user profiles of public safety personnel assigned to theincident may indicate that a subset of public safety personnel areavailable (e.g., not assigned to other incident-related tasks) to beassigned to the role of watchers. Accordingly, in these embodiments, theelectronic computing device 110 may select the plurality of watcherdevices 120 based on the availability of the watchers. Further, theelectronic computing device 110 may extract the video displaycharacteristics of the plurality of watcher devices 120 from the deviceprofiles (e.g., stored in the incident database 140) associated with thepublic safety personnel who are available to be assigned to the role ofwatchers. The video display characteristics of the watcher devices 120include, but not limited to, size, shape, orientation, aspect ratio,resolution, rotatability, expandability, or foldability of an electronicdisplay respectively associated with the watcher devices 120.

At block 340, the electronic computing device 110 determines, based onrespective positions of the objects of interest with the field-of-viewof the camera, a plurality of sub-regions of the field-of-view, whereeach of the sub-regions encloses at least one of the detected objects ofinterest and has one or more video attributes. In one embodiment, theelectronic computing device 110 first determines the number ofsub-regions to be formed from within the field-of-view based on thenumber of objects of interest that are detected from within thefield-of-view at block 320 and a watch policy defined by a public safetyagency responding to the incident. For example, if the watch policydictates that a watcher can be assigned to screen/watch a video streamwith a maximum of one (1) object of interest and further there are five(5) objects of interest that are detected from within the field-of-viewcorresponding to an incident region, then the electronic computingdevice 110 may form a maximum of five (5) sub-regions from within thefield-of-view. As another example, if the watch policy dictates that awatcher can be assigned to screen a video stream with a maximum of two(2) objects of interest and there are five (5) objects of interest thatare detected from within the field-of-view corresponding to an incidentregion, the electronic computing device 110 may form a maximum of three(3) sub-regions from within the field-of-view. In this case, forexample, each of first and second sub-regions will include two objectsof interest and a third sub-region region will include only one objectof interest in accordance with the watch policy. In another embodiment,the electronic computing device 110 may determine the number ofsub-regions to be formed from the field-of-view based on the number ofavailable watcher devices 120 and/or watchers. For example, if there areeight (8) objects of interest that are detected at block 320 and thereare only four (4) watchers that are available for watching, then theelectronic computing device 110 may form four (4) sub-regions, suchthat, each sub-region can include a maximum of two (2) objects ofinterest and to ensure that each watcher can be assigned to watch avideo stream with a maximum of two (2) objects of interest. Once thenumber of sub-regions to be formed from within the field-of-view of thecamera are determined, the electronic computing device 110 determines aboundary for each of the sub-regions to ensure that each sub-region canenclose a specified number of objects of interest, i.e., at least oneobject of interest and to further ensure that the areas covering all ofthe objects of interest within the field-of-view is covered by theformed sub-regions. In accordance with some embodiments, the boundary ofeach of the sub-regions (i.e., shape and size of the sub-regions) mayalso be determined based on the video display characteristics (e.g., asize, shape, orientation, aspect ratio, resolution, rotatability,expandability, or foldability etc.,) of the electronic displayassociated with the available watcher devices 120. For example, anavailable watcher device 120 may have a circular display, in this case,the electronic computing device 110 may form a sub-region with acircular boundary enclosing one or more objects of interest to bewatched. In accordance with some embodiments, the objects of interestthat are relatively close to each other within the field-of-view may beenclosed within the same sub-region if the watch policy of the agencyallows more than one object of interest to be watched by the samewatcher. Otherwise, a separate sub-region is formed to enclose each ofthe objects of interest.

In any case, after the electronic computing device 110 determines theplurality of sub-regions of the field-of-view at 340, the electroniccomputing device 110 proceeds to block 350 to assign, based on the oneor more video display characteristics associated with the plurality ofwatcher devices 120 and the one or more attributes of the sub-regions,each of the sub-regions to a respectively selected one of the watcherdevices 120. In accordance with some embodiments, the electroniccomputing device 110 performs the assignment by correlating videoattributes of each of the sub-regions to video display characteristicsof each of the available watcher devices 120. The electronic computingdevice 110 then assigns a particular sub-region to a respectivelyselected watcher device 120 (i.e., a watcher device 120 selected fromthe available watcher devices 120) when there exists a correlation(i.e., when a correlation score is greater than a predeterminedcorrelation threshold) between the video attributes of the particularsub-region and video display characteristics associated with theselected watcher device 120. In case, there is no correlation (e.g.,when a correlation score is not greater than a correlation threshold)between the video attributes of a particular sub-region and videodisplay characteristics associated with a particular watcher device 120,then the electronic computing device 110 refrains from assigning thatparticular sub-region to that particular watcher device 120 and insteadperforms correlation of the particular sub-region with other availablewatcher device 120 to determine if there is a better correlation withthe video display characteristics of another available watcher device120.

In accordance with some embodiments, an assignment of a sub-region to awatcher device 120 is determined based on whether a correlation scorefor a given combination of particular sub-region and a respectivelyselected watcher device 120 is greater than a correlation score that issimilarly determined for the combination of particular sub-region withone or more other available watcher devices 120. For example, assumethat a particular sub-region within the field-of-view is associated withone or more video attributes (e.g., the particular sub-region includesmultiple objects of interest and has an area larger than othersub-regions) requiring a larger display. In this case, a watcher device120 with a larger electronic display will have a greater correlationscore than a watcher device 120 with a smaller electronic display. Asanother example, assume that a particular sub-region with afield-of-view is associated with one or more video attributes (e.g., theparticular sub-region has a wide rectangular shape with a width toheight ratio of 2:1) requiring an electronic display adapted forlandscape mode. In this case, a watcher device 120 with an electronicdisplay adapted to operate in landscape mode with an aspect ratio of 2:1will have a greater correlation score than a watcher device 120 with anelectronic display adapted to operate in portrait mode with an aspectratio of 2:1.

The electronic computing device 110 may also correlate factors (i.e., inaddition to video display characteristics) such as an operating mode,cognitive load, and network bandwidth associated with the watcher device120 to determine if a particularly selected watcher device 120 issuitable for displaying a particular sub-region of an incident regionfor screening by a watcher. Additionally, or alternatively, theelectronic computing device 110 may also correlate factors such as acount of objects of interest included in a particular sub-region, awatch priority of the objects of interest, and size of display of thewatcher device 120 to determine if a particularly selected watcherdevice 120 is suitable for displaying a particular sub-region of anincident region for screening by a watcher.

In accordance with some embodiments, the electronic computing device110, prior to assigning a particular sub-region of the field-of-view toa respectively selected watcher device 120, further determines whetherthe selected watcher device 120 is operating with a covert mode status.As used herein, the term “covert mode” represents an operating mode inwhich the electronic display of the watcher device 120 is switched offor otherwise operates in dim mode (i.e., with reduced screen brightness)to allow the public safety officer to perform a covert operation. Sincethe covert mode may prevent the electronic display of the watcher device120 from displaying an assigned video stream, the electronic computingdevice 110 assigns the particular sub-region to a respectively selectedwatcher device 120 only when the respectively selected watcher device120 is not operating in covert mode. In other words, the electroniccomputing device 110 refrains from assigning the particular sub-regionto a watcher device 120 that is operating in covert mode and insteadattempts to assign the particular sub-region to another availablewatcher device 120 that is not operating in covert mode as long as thereexists a correlation between video attributes of the particularsub-region and video display characteristics of the another availablewatcher device 120.

In accordance with some embodiments, even if there exists a correlationbetween the video attributes of a particular sub-region to video displaycharacteristics of a respectively selected watcher device 120, theelectronic computing device 110, prior to assigning the particularsub-region to the respectively selected watcher device 120, determineswhether the selected watcher device 120 is associated with a cognitiveload greater than a cognitive load threshold. As used herein, the term“cognitive load” represents a cognitive load of a watcher associatedwith the watcher device 120. The cognitive load of a watcher may bedirectly proportional to the amount of information that is beingpresented to the watcher via a watcher device 120 and/or the taskscurrently being executed by the watcher. For example, the electroniccomputing device 110 may determine that the cognitive load of a watchermay be greater than the cognitive threshold if information obtained fromthe watcher device 120 indicates one or more of: (i) watcher device 120is already presenting another video stream to the watcher, (ii) watcheris on another call, (iii) watcher is performing one or more other tasks,for example, interviewing a witness, interrogating a suspect, respondingto another incident, and (iv) watcher has an abnormal heart rate (e.g.,when the officer is running). Other factors may exist as well. Sincecognitive overloading prevents a watcher from effectively screening avideo stream, the electronic computing device 110 assigns the particularsub-region to a respectively selected watcher device 120 when therespectively selected watcher device 120 is associated with a cognitiveload that is not greater than a cognitive load threshold. In otherwords, the electronic computing device 110 refrains from assigning theparticular sub-region to a watcher device 120 that is associated with acognitive load greater than the cognitive load threshold and insteadassigns the particular sub-region to another available watcher device120 that is associated with a cognitive load not greater than thecognitive load threshold and further there exists a correlation betweenvideo attributes of the particular sub-region and video displaycharacteristics of the another available watcher device 120.

In accordance with some embodiments, the electronic computing device 110assigns a watch priority to each of the objects of interest detected atblock 320. As used herein, the term “watch priority” indicates thepriority with which each object of interest needs to be monitored. Inother words, a sub-region enclosing an object of interest with highwatch priority is assigned to a watcher device 120 associated with arelatively higher network bandwidth. As an example, the electroniccomputing device 110 determines that a first object of interest (e.g., acrowd at a particular section of a stadium) from the detected objects ofinterest has a watch priority higher than a watch priority of a secondobject of interest (e.g., a lone person with a blue cap) from thedetected objects of interest. In this example, assume that theelectronic computing device 110 further determines that a first selectedone of the available watcher device 120 (e.g., watcher device 120-1) isoperating with a first network bandwidth (e.g., 5 Mbps) and a secondselected one of the available watcher devices 120 (e.g., watcher device120-2) is operating with a second network bandwidth (e.g., 1 Mbps). Alsoassume that both first and second selected one of the watcher devices120 have a correlation score (i.e., correlation between video displaycharacteristics and video attributes) that is greater than a correlationthreshold for a first sub-region of the sub-regions enclosing the firstobject of interest and a second sub-region of the sub-regions enclosingthe second object of interest. In this example, the electronic computingdevice 110 assigns the first one of the sub-regions enclosing the firstobject of interest to the first selected one of the watcher devices 120and assigns the second one of the sub-regions enclosing the secondobject of interest to the second selected one of the watcher devices 120because the first selected one of the watcher device 120 is operatingwith the first network bandwidth that is greater than the second networkbandwidth and further because the first object of interest has a watchpriority higher than the second object of interest. Alternatively, theelectronic computing device 110 may assign the first one of thesub-regions enclosing the first object of interest with the higher watchpriority to the second selected one of the watcher devices 120 andsecond one of the sub-regions enclosing the second object of interestwith the lower watch priority to the first selected one of the watcherdevices 120 in case the second network bandwidth is greater than thefirst network bandwidth. In other words, in these embodiments, theelectronic computing device 110 assigns a sub-region enclosing an objectof interest with high watch priority to a watcher device 120 with betternetwork bandwidth because a watcher device 120 with a relatively highernetwork bandwidth is capable of displaying a video stream with arelatively better quality (e.g., high resolution, reduced packet loss,etc.,) for the watcher.

In accordance with some embodiments, the electronic computing device 110assigns a sub-region enclosing an object of interest with a highpriority to a watcher device 120 with a larger display area. Forexample, assume that a first object of interest from the detectedobjects of interest has a watch priority that is higher than a watchpriority of a second object of interest from the detected object ofinterest. Further assume that a first selected one of the watcherdevices 120 (e.g., watcher device 120-1) is included with a firstdisplay area and a second selected one of the watcher devices 120 (e.g.,watcher device 120-2) is included with a second display area. In thisexample, when the first display area is larger than the second displayarea, the electronic computing device 110 assigns a first one of thesub-regions enclosing the first object of interest with the higher watchpriority to the first selected one of the watcher devices 120 and asecond one of the sub-regions enclosing the second object of interestwith the lower watch priority to the second selected one of the watcherdevices 120. Alternatively, when the second display area is larger thanthe first display area, the electronic computing device 110 assigns thefirst one of the sub-regions enclosing the first object of interest withthe higher watch priority to the second selected one of the watcherdevices 120 and assigning the second one of the sub-regions enclosingthe second object of interest with the lower watch priority to the firstselected one of the watcher devices 120.

In accordance with some embodiments, the electronic computing device 110assigns a sub-region to a particular watcher region based on the countof objects of interest included in the sub-region. In these embodiments,the electronic computing device 110 determines a count of objects ofinterest enclosed in each of the sub-regions.

As an example, assume that a count of the objects of interest enclosedin a first one of the sub-regions is greater than a count of the objectsof interest enclosed in a second one of the sub-regions. Further, assumethat the electronic computing device 110 has determined that a firstselected one of the watcher devices 120 (e.g., watcher device 120-1) isoperating with a first network bandwidth and a second selected one ofthe watcher devices 120 (e.g., watcher device 120-2) is operating with asecond network bandwidth. In this example, when the first networkbandwidth is greater than the second network bandwidth, the electroniccomputing device 110 assigns the first one of the sub-regions to thefirst selected one of the watcher devices 120 and assigning the secondone of the sub-regions to the second selected one of the watcher devices120. Alternatively, when the second network bandwidth is greater thanthe first network bandwidth, the electronic computing device 110 assignsthe first one of the sub-regions to the second selected one of thewatcher devices 120 and the second one of the sub-regions to the firstselected one of the watcher devices 120. In other words, in theseembodiments, the electronic computing device 110 ensures that asub-region with a large number of objects of interest is assigned to awatcher device 120 with a network bandwidth that is suitable fordownloading and displaying a video stream covering a large number ofobjects of interest.

As another example, assume that a count of the objects of interestenclosed in a first one of the sub-regions is greater than a count ofthe objects of interest enclosed in a second one of the sub-regions.Further assume that the electronic computing device 110 has determinedthat a first selected one of the watcher devices 120 (e.g., watcherdevice 120-1) is included with a first display area and a secondselected one of the watcher devices 120 (e.g., watcher device 120-2) isincluded with a second display area. In this example, when the firstdisplay area is larger than the second display area, the electroniccomputing device 110 assigns the first one of the sub-regions to thefirst selected one of the watcher devices 120 and the second one of thesub-regions to the second selected one of the watcher devices 120.Alternatively, when the second display area is larger than the firstdisplay area, the electronic computing device 110 assigns the first oneof the sub-regions to the second selected one of the watcher devices 120and assigning the second one of the sub-regions to the first selectedone of the watcher devices 120. In other words, in these embodiments,the electronic computing device 110 ensures that a sub-region with alarge number of objects of interest is assigned to a watcher device 120with a larger display area that is suitable for displaying a videostream covering a large number of objects of interest.

As a further example, assume that a count of the objects of interestenclosed in a first one of the sub-regions is greater than a count ofthe objects of interest enclosed in a second one of the sub-regions.Further assume that the electronic computing device 110 has determinedthat a first selected one of the watcher devices 120 (e.g., watcherdevice 120-1) is associated with a first cognitive load and a secondselected one of the watcher devices 120 (e.g., watcher device 120-2) isassociated with a second cognitive load. In this example, when the firstcognitive load is lower than the second cognitive load, the electroniccomputing device 110 assigns the first one of the sub-regions to thefirst selected one of the watcher devices 120 and the second one of thesub-regions to the second selected one of the watcher devices 120.Alternatively, when the second cognitive load is lower than the firstcognitive load, the electronic computing device 110 assigns the firstone of the sub-regions to the second selected one of the watcher devices120 and the second one of the sub-regions to the first selected one ofthe watcher devices 120. In other words, in this embodiments, theelectronic computing device 110 ensures that a sub-region with a largenumber of objects of interest is assigned to a watcher device 120 with alower cognitive load to ensure that the cognitive load of the watcher isnot high enough to prevent the watcher from effectivelyscreening/watching a video stream of a sub-region with a large number ofobjects of interest.

In accordance with some embodiments, the electronic computing device 110applies a combination of factors including video display characteristics(including a size, shape, orientation, aspect ratio, resolution,rotatability, expandability, or foldability of an electronic displayassociated with a watcher device 120), operating mode (covert modestatus), network bandwidth, and cognitive load associated with thewatcher devices 120 as well as the unique video attributes (e.g., size,shape, count of objects of interest, watch priority of objects ofinterest, etc.,) of the sub-regions identified within the field-of-viewcorresponding to an incident region, to assign each of the sub-regionsto a respectively selected one of the watcher devices 120. In oneembodiment, the electronic computing device may rank the watcher devices120 based on the combination of factors such as a display size andavailable network bandwidth. Assume that network bandwidth is specifiedin pixels/second and display size is determined by total pixels perframe. In this case, the watcher devices 120 may be ranked byresponsiveness (i.e., time taken to receive one single frame) of thewatcher devices i.e., no. of pixels per frame divided by networkbandwidth. As an example, if a video stream includes two-thousand (2000)pixels per frame and network bandwidth of a first watcher device 120-1is one-thousand (1000) pixels/second, then it will take two seconds totransmit one frame to a first watcher device. On the other hand, it maytake only one second to transmit one frame to a second watcher device120-2 with two-thousand (2000) pixels/second network bandwidth. In thiscase, the electronic computing device 110 may assign a higher ranking tothe second watcher device 120-2 than the first watcher device 120-1.Accordingly, in this example, the electronic computing device 110 mayassign a sub-region with one or more objects of interest with highpriority watch status or a sub-region with large number of objects ofinterest to the second watcher device 120-2 which has higher rankingthan the first watcher device 120-1.

Next, at block 360, the electronic computing device 110 causes thetransmission of video streams respectively captured corresponding toeach of the assigned sub-regions of interest to the respectivelyselected one of the watcher devices 120. In one embodiment, theelectronic computing device 110 directly captures, via a camera locallyimplemented at the electronic computing device 110, video streamscorresponding each of the sub-regions within its field-of-view andfurther transmits, via the transceiver 208 over the communicationnetwork 130, the video streams to the respective watcher devices 120 towhich the sub-regions were assigned at block 350. In this embodiment,the electronic computing device 110 may establish a PTV session tosimultaneously transmit the video streams to all watcher devices 120associated with a video communication group. The video stream alsoincludes metadata identifying information (e.g., pixel positions orcoordinates of boundary of the sub regions) related to the sub-regionsalong with an indication identifying, for each watcher device 120 in thegroup, a sub-region that is assigned to the group. When a watcher device120 in the group receives the video stream, the watcher device 120extracts information related to the sub-region to which the watcherdevice 120 and selectively displays, via an associated electronicdisplay, only the video stream portion (e.g., corresponding to pixelpositions and boundary) corresponding to the sub-region to which thewatcher device 120 is assigned. As an example, the watcher device 120may zoom-in or crop the video stream portion corresponding to theassigned sub-region, such that, the electronic display associated withthe watcher device only displays the zoomed-in or cropped video streamportion corresponding to that sub-region assigned to the watcher forseparate screening.

In accordance with embodiments, the watcher device 120 receives a livevideo stream corresponding to the sub-region assigned to it. The videostream corresponding to the assigned sub-region is continued to betransmitted to the watcher device 120 unless the electronic computingdevice 110 receives an indication to stop transmitting the video stream.The indication to stop transmitting the video stream corresponding to aparticular sub-region may be generated when the objects of interestdetected in the particular sub-region are not required to be watched anylonger or when the object of interest has moved out of the particularsub-region sub-regions. In one embodiment, when the objects of interestenclosed in a particular sub-region have moved out of the sub-region,the electronic computing device 110 may decide to determine a new set ofsub-regions either within the same field-of-view of the camera or byadjusting the field-of-view of the camera to align with the new positionof the objects of interest previously detected at block 320. Theelectronic computing device 110 may then repeat the functions describedat blocks 350 and 360 for the new set of sub-regions in order to assignthe new set of sub-regions to respectively selected watcher devices andfurther cause transmission of video streams corresponding to the new-setof sub-regions to the selected watcher devices 120. The determination ofnew set of sub-regions and the transmission of video streamscorresponding to the new set of sub-regions ensures that the objects ofinterest previously detected at block 320 are continued to be watched bythe watcher devices 120 even after the objects of interest move out ofthe previously determined sub-regions.

In one embodiment, the electronic computing device 110 transmits aninstruction requesting an external camera (e.g., drone camera, vehiclecameras, surveillance cameras, etc.) deployed in the incident area totransmit video streams to multiple watcher devices 120. The instructionincludes information identifying the field-of-view of the camera,sub-regions determined from within the field-of-view, and identifier ofwatcher devices 120 to which each of the sub-regions are assigned. Inresponse to the instruction, the external camera captures and streamsthe sub-regions to the respective watcher devices 120 to which thesub-regions are assigned in accordance with the assignment instructionsreceived from the electronic computing device 110. In anotherembodiment, the electronic computing device 110 may transmit aninstruction to multiple external cameras. As an example, the electroniccomputing device 110 may transmit an instruction to a drone camerarequesting the drone camera to move to the incident region and furthercapture and transmit a video stream corresponding to a first one of thesub-regions of the field-of-view to a first watcher device 120 (e.g.,watcher device 120-1) to which the first one of the sub-regions isassigned. In this example, the instruction to the drone camera mayinclude information identifying the field-of-view of the camera and morespecifically information identifying the first one of the sub-regions,and the identifier of the first watcher device 120 to which the firstone of the sub-region is assigned. Similarly, in this example, theelectronic computing device 110 may transmit an instruction to asurveillance camera (e.g., a surveillance camera already having afield-of-view overlapping the field-of-view of the camera associatedwith the electronic computing device 110) to capture and transmit avideo stream corresponding to a second one of the sub-regions of thefield-of-view to a second watcher device 120 (e.g., watcher device120-2) to which the second one of the sub-regions is assigned. Theinstruction to the surveillance camera may include informationidentifying the field-of-view of the camera and more specificallyinformation identifying the second one of the sub-regions, and theidentifier of the second watcher device 120 to which the second one ofthe sub-region is assigned. In this manner, the electronic computingdevice 110 may employ multiple external cameras to transmit videostreams corresponding to multiple sub-regions to assigned watcherdevices 120.

In accordance with some embodiments, the electronic computing device110, after causing the transmission of video streams to assigned watcherdevices 120 at block 360, monitors watcher status corresponding thevideo streams respectively transmitted to each of the selected one ofthe watcher devices 120. As an example, the electronic computing device110 periodically receives, from the respective watcher devices 120,information indicating whether the watchers are activelywatching/screening the video stream captured corresponding to aparticular sub-region assigned to the watcher device 120. If thefeedback received by the electronic computing device 110 indicates thata first one of the watcher devices 120 (e.g., watcher device 120-1) isnot actively watching/screening (i.e., inactive status), the electroniccomputing device 110 may re-assign the sub-region with an inactivewatcher status to a second one of the watcher devices 120 (e.g., watcherdevice 120-2) based on process block 350. In this case, afterre-assigning the sub-region to the second one of the watcher devices120, the electronic computing device 110 causes transmission of thevideo stream to the second one of the watcher devices 120 to which thesub-region is re-assigned as described in process block 360. In oneembodiment, the second one of the watcher devices 120 to which thesub-region is re-assigned may be already receiving and displaying videostream corresponding to another one of the sub-regions to which thesecond one of the watcher devices 120 is assigned. In this case, thesecond one of the watcher devices 120 may be configured to receive anddisplay video stream corresponding to both the previously assignedsub-region as well as the reassigned sub-region. As an example, thesecond one of the watcher devices 120 may be associated with a largedisplay area that is capable of displaying video stream corresponding toboth the previously assigned sub-region as well as the reassignedsub-region. The video streams corresponding to the two sub-regions maybe arranged, for example, side by side (e.g., split screen view) withinthe display area of the watcher device 120 to ensure that the watchercan effectively screen both the video streams.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of a graphical user interface implementedat an electronic computing device for assigning video streams to watcherdevices 120. A portable radio device 410 (similar to electroniccomputing device 110 shown in FIGS. 1, 2) is shown in FIG. 4 asincluding an electronic display screen 430 with a graphical userinterface 440. For example, the portable radio device 410 may beoperated by a public safety commander assigned to monitor an incident ata sports stadium. As shown in FIG. 4, the graphical user interface 440provides an image or a live video view of a region (i.e., a region to bemonitored in relation to the incident assigned to the public safetycommander) that is captured within a field-of-view of a cameraimplemented at the portable radio device 410. In accordance with theprocess 300 described above, the portable radio device 410 automaticallydivides the field-of-view (i.e., an image corresponding to the incidentregion) into different sub-regions 442, 444, 446 and further assigns thesub-regions 442, 444, 446 to watcher devices 420-1, 420-2, 420-3,respectively. The watcher devices 420 may be similar to the watcherdevices 120 shown in FIG. 1. In one embodiment, the portable radiodevice 410 uses best-fit optimization algorithm to set the areas (i.e.,sub-regions) to be watched by arranging/rotating the shapes representingthe electronic display area of the watcher devices 420-1, 420-2, 420-3in such a way to get maximal coverage of areas containing the objects ofinterest detected within the field-of-view of the device's 410 camera.Watcher devices 420 with larger displays may be prioritized to coversub-regions with more objects of interest.

In the example shown in FIG. 4, the portable radio device 410 assignssub-region 442 to watcher device 420-1 based on a correlation betweenthe shape (i.e., rectangular shape with height to width ratio of 2:1) ofthe sub-region 442 and shape (i.e., tall rectangular shape with 2:1aspect ratio) and orientation (i.e., portrait rotation) of theelectronic display 424-1 associated with the watcher device 420-1. Theportable radio device 410 assigns sub-region 444 to watcher device 420-2based on a correlation between the size of the sub-region 44 and size ofthe electronic display 424-2 (i.e., size of smart watch device isrelatively smaller) associated with the watcher device 420-2. Theportable radio device 410 assigns sub-region 446 to watcher device 420-3because the electronic display 424-3 associated with the watcher device420-3 is wide and cannot be rotated. Accordingly, the sub-region 446which has the shape of a large rectangle with a landscape orientation isassigned to the watcher device 420-3 that has a larger display area thanthe other watcher devices 420-1, 420-2.

The portable radio device 410 then generates a visual map at thegraphical user interface to show a spatial arrangement of thesub-regions 442, 444, 446 within the field-of-view of the camera. Thegraphical user interface 440 provides an indication, for example, byoverlaying on each sub-region, an avatar representing a respectivewatcher device to which the sub-region is assigned for screening. Forexample, as shown in FIG. 4, a first avatar 443 representing a watcher422-1 is overlaid on sub-region 442 to indicate that the sub-region 442is assigned to a watcher device 420-1 associated with the watcher 422-1for screening. A second avatar 445 representing a watcher device 422-2is overlaid on a sub-region 444 to indicate that the sub-region 444 isassigned to a watcher device 420-2 associated with the watcher 422-2.Similarly, a third avatar 447 representing a watcher device 420-3 isoverlaid on a sub-region 446 to indicate that the sub-region 446 isassigned to a watcher device 420-3 associated with the watcher 422-3.

In accordance with some embodiments, when the graphical user interfaceshowing the visual map of the formation of sub-regions and assignment ofthe sub-regions is output to the public safety commander via theportable radio device 410, the public safety commander has the option ofmodifying the boundaries of one or more of the sub-regions 442, 444, 446as well as modifying the assignment of the sub-regions 442, 444, 446 toa different watcher device than one indicated in the visual map. Forexample, the public safety commander can interact (e.g., via input) withthe graphical user interface to redraw the boundaries of thesub-regions, thereby resulting in the formation of a new set ofsub-regions within the same field-of-view displayed on the electronicdisplay 440. In other words, when the portable radio device 410 receivesa user input adjusting the boundaries of one or more sub regions, theportable radio device 410 forms a different set of sub-regions eachenclosing at least one of the object of interests previously detectedwithin the field-of-view. When the new set of sub-regions are formed,the portable radio device 410 re-computes the assignment of thesub-regions in accordance with the process block 350 described in FIG.3. In other words, the portable radio device 410 reassigns, based on theone or more video display characteristics associated with the watcherdevices 420-1, 420-2, 420-3, each of the different sets of sub-regionsto a respectively re-selected one of the watcher devices 420-1, 420-2,420-3. The watcher devices 420-1, 420-2, 420-3 that are re-selected forthe different set of sub-regions are indicated on the respectivesub-regions via avatars representing the respective watchers. When thepublic safety commander provides a user input approving the assignmentof re-selected watcher devices, the portable radio device 410 causestransmission of video streams respectively captured corresponding toeach of the assigned different sets of sub-regions of interest to therespectively re-selected one of the watcher devices 420-1, 420-2, 420-3.

As shown in FIG. 4, the watcher device 420-1 associated with the watcher422-1 has an electronic display 424-1 that displays a video streamcorresponding to the sub-region 442 assigned to it by the portable radiodevice 410. The watcher device 420-2 associated with the watcher 422-2has an electronic display 424-2 that displays a video streamcorresponding to the sub-region 444 assigned to it by the portable radiodevice 410. Similarly, the watcher device 420-3 associated with thewatcher 422-3 has an electronic display 426-2 that displays a videostream corresponding to the sub-region 446 assigned to it by theportable radio device 410.

In accordance with some embodiments, the portable radio device 410monitors watcher status corresponding to each of the sub-regions 442,444, 446 assigned to the watcher devices 420-1, 420-2, 420-3,respectively. In these embodiments, the portable radio device 410 maygenerate an indication to show a current watcher status corresponding toeach of the sub-regions 442, 444, 446. For example, the avatars 443,445, 447 representing the respective watchers 422-1, 422-2, 422-3 may behighlighted in a predefined color or pattern to indicate theircorresponding watcher status. If the watcher status provides that thewatcher 422-2 is not actively watching the video stream capturedcorresponding to the sub-region 444, the avatar 445 representing thewatcher 422-2 may be highlighted in red color to indicate that thewatcher is not actively watching the video stream. In response, thepublic safety commander may request the device 410 to re-assign thesub-region 444 to a different watcher device for screening.Alternatively, if the watcher status provides that the watcher 422-2 isactively watching the video stream captured corresponding to thesub-region 444, the avatar 445 representing the watcher 422-2 may behighlighted in green color to indicate that the watcher is activelywatching the video stream.

As should be apparent from this detailed description, the operations andfunctions of the computing devices described herein are sufficientlycomplex as to require their implementation on a computer system, andcannot be performed, as a practical matter, in the human mind.Electronic computing devices such as set forth herein are understood asrequiring and providing speed and accuracy and complexity managementthat are not obtainable by human mental steps, in addition to theinherently digital nature of such operations (e.g., a human mind cannotinterface directly with RAM or other digital storage, cannot transmit orreceive electronic messages, electronically encoded video,electronically encoded audio, etc., among other features and functionsset forth herein).

In the foregoing specification, specific embodiments have beendescribed. However, one of ordinary skill in the art appreciates thatvarious modifications and changes can be made without departing from thescope of the invention as set forth in the claims below. Accordingly,the specification and figures are to be regarded in an illustrativerather than a restrictive sense, and all such modifications are intendedto be included within the scope of present teachings. The benefits,advantages, solutions to problems, and any element(s) that may cause anybenefit, advantage, or solution to occur or become more pronounced arenot to be construed as a critical, required, or essential features orelements of any or all the claims. The disclosure is defined solely bythe appended claims including any amendments made during the pendency ofthis application and all equivalents of those claims as issued.

Moreover, in this document, relational terms such as first and second,top and bottom, and the like may be used solely to distinguish oneentity or action from another entity or action without necessarilyrequiring or implying any actual such relationship or order between suchentities or actions. The terms “comprises,” “comprising,” “has”,“having,” “includes”, “including,” “contains”, “containing” or any othervariation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, suchthat a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises, has,includes, contains a list of elements does not include only thoseelements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherentto such process, method, article, or apparatus. An element proceeded by“comprises . . . a”, “has . . . a”, “includes . . . a”, “contains . . .a” does not, without more constraints, preclude the existence ofadditional identical elements in the process, method, article, orapparatus that comprises, has, includes, contains the element. The terms“a” and “an” are defined as one or more unless explicitly statedotherwise herein. The terms “substantially”, “essentially”,“approximately”, “about” or any other version thereof, are defined asbeing close to as understood by one of ordinary skill in the art, and inone non-limiting embodiment the term is defined to be within 10%, inanother embodiment within 5%, in another embodiment within 1% and inanother embodiment within 0.5%. The term “one of”, without a morelimiting modifier such as “only one of”, and when applied herein to twoor more subsequently defined options such as “one of A and B” should beconstrued to mean an existence of any one of the options in the listalone (e.g., A alone or B alone) or any combination of two or more ofthe options in the list (e.g., A and B together).

A device or structure that is “configured” in a certain way isconfigured in at least that way, but may also be configured in ways thatare not listed.

The terms “coupled”, “coupling” or “connected” as used herein can haveseveral different meanings depending in the context in which these termsare used. For example, the terms coupled, coupling, or connected canhave a mechanical or electrical connotation. For example, as usedherein, the terms coupled, coupling, or connected can indicate that twoelements or devices are directly connected to one another or connectedto one another through an intermediate elements or devices via anelectrical element, electrical signal or a mechanical element dependingon the particular context.

It will be appreciated that some embodiments may be comprised of one ormore generic or specialized processors (or “processing devices”) such asmicroprocessors, digital signal processors, customized processors andfield programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and unique stored programinstructions (including both software and firmware) that control the oneor more processors to implement, in conjunction with certainnon-processor circuits, some, most, or all of the functions of themethod and/or apparatus described herein. Alternatively, some or allfunctions could be implemented by a state machine that has no storedprogram instructions, or in one or more application specific integratedcircuits (ASICs), in which each function or some combinations of certainof the functions are implemented as custom logic. Of course, acombination of the two approaches could be used.

Moreover, an embodiment can be implemented as a computer-readablestorage medium having computer readable code stored thereon forprogramming a computer (e.g., comprising a processor) to perform amethod as described and claimed herein. Any suitable computer-usable orcomputer readable medium may be utilized. Examples of suchcomputer-readable storage mediums include, but are not limited to, ahard disk, a CD-ROM, an optical storage device, a magnetic storagedevice, a ROM (Read Only Memory), a PROM (Programmable Read OnlyMemory), an EPROM (Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory), an EEPROM(Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory) and a Flashmemory. In the context of this document, a computer-usable orcomputer-readable medium may be any medium that can contain, store,communicate, propagate, or transport the program for use by or inconnection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

Further, it is expected that one of ordinary skill, notwithstandingpossibly significant effort and many design choices motivated by, forexample, available time, current technology, and economicconsiderations, when guided by the concepts and principles disclosedherein will be readily capable of generating such software instructionsand programs and ICs with minimal experimentation. For example, computerprogram code for carrying out operations of various example embodimentsmay be written in an object oriented programming language such as Java,Smalltalk, C++, Python, or the like. However, the computer program codefor carrying out operations of various example embodiments may also bewritten in conventional procedural programming languages, such as the“C” programming language or similar programming languages. The programcode may execute entirely on a computer, partly on the computer, as astand-alone software package, partly on the computer and partly on aremote computer or server or entirely on the remote computer or server.In the latter scenario, the remote computer or server may be connectedto the computer through a local area network (LAN) or a wide areanetwork (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external computer(for example, through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider).

The Abstract of the Disclosure is provided to allow the reader toquickly ascertain the nature of the technical disclosure. It issubmitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpretor limit the scope or meaning of the claims. In addition, in theforegoing Detailed Description, it can be seen that various features aregrouped together in various embodiments for the purpose of streamliningthe disclosure. This method of disclosure is not to be interpreted asreflecting an intention that the claimed embodiments require morefeatures than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as thefollowing claims reflect, inventive subject matter lies in less than allfeatures of a single disclosed embodiment. Thus the following claims arehereby incorporated into the Detailed Description, with each claimstanding on its own as a separately claimed subject matter.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of assigning video streams to watcherdevices, the method comprising: obtaining, at an electronic computingdevice, context information associated with an incident; detecting, atthe electronic computing device, as a function of the contextinformation, a plurality of objects of interest within a field-of-viewof a camera; obtaining, at the electronic computing device, one or morevideo display characteristics associated with a plurality of watcherdevices; determining, at the electronic computing device, based onrespective positions of the objects of interest within thefield-of-view, a plurality of sub-regions of the field-of-view, each ofthe sub-regions enclosing at least one of the detected objects ofinterest and has one or more video attributes; assigning, at theelectronic computing device, based on the one or more video displaycharacteristics associated with the watcher devices and the one or morevideo attributes of the sub-regions, each of the sub-regions to arespectively selected one of the watcher devices; and causing, at theelectronic computing device, transmission of video streams respectivelycaptured corresponding to each of the assigned sub-regions of interestto the respectively selected one of the watcher devices.
 2. The methodof claim 1, wherein the one or more video display characteristicsinclude a size, shape, orientation, aspect ratio, resolution,rotatability, expandability, or foldability of an electronic displayrespectively associated with the watcher devices, the method furthercomprising: prior to assigning, determining whether the size, shape,orientation, aspect ratio, resolution, rotatability, expandability, orfoldability of the electronic display associated with the watcherdevices correlates with the video attributes of the sub-regions, whereinthe assigning comprises assigning each of the sub-regions to therespectively selected one of the watcher devices when the size, shape,orientation, aspect ratio, resolution, rotatability, expandability, orfoldability of the electronic display associated with the respectivelyselected one of the watcher devices correlates with the video attributesof the respectively assigned sub-regions.
 3. The method of claim 2,further comprising: refraining from assigning a particular one of thesub-regions to a particular one of the watcher devices when the size,shape, orientation, aspect ratio, resolution, rotatability,expandability, or foldability of the electronic display associated withthe particular one of the watcher devices does not correlate with thevideo attributes of the particular one of the sub-regions.
 4. The methodof claim 2, wherein assigning each of the sub-regions to therespectively selected one of the watcher devices further based on one ormore of: network bandwidth associated with the watcher devices; covertmode status associated with the watcher devices; a count of objects ofinterest enclosed in each of the sub regions; or a watch priorityassociated with each of the objects of interest enclosed in each of thesub-regions.
 5. The method of claim 1, further comprising: prior toassigning, determining whether each of the respectively selected one ofthe watcher devices is operating in a covert mode, wherein the assigningcomprises assigning each of the sub-regions to the respectively selectedone of the watcher devices when each of the respectively selected one ofthe watcher devices is not operating in a covert mode.
 6. The method ofclaim 5, further comprising: refraining from assigning a particular oneof the sub-regions to a particular one of the watcher devices when theparticular one of the watcher devices is determined to be operating in acovert mode.
 7. The method of claim 1, further comprising: prior toassigning, determining whether each of the respectively selected one ofthe watcher devices is associated with a cognitive load greater than acognitive load threshold; and wherein assigning comprises assigning eachof the sub-regions to the respectively selected one of the watcherdevices when each of the respectively selected one of the watcherdevices is associated with a respective cognitive load that is notgreater than the cognitive load threshold.
 8. The method of claim 1,further comprising: assigning a watch priority to each of the detectedobjects of interest, determining that a first object of interest fromthe detected objects of interest has a watch priority that is higherthan a watch priority of a second object of interest from the detectedobjects of interest; determining that a first selected one of thewatcher devices is operating with a first network bandwidth and a secondselected one of the watcher devices is operating with a second networkbandwidth; and wherein assigning comprises: assigning a first one of thesub-regions enclosing the first object of interest to the first selectedone of the watcher devices and assigning a second one of the sub-regionsenclosing the second object of interest to the second selected one ofthe watcher devices when the first network bandwidth is greater than thesecond network bandwidth; and assigning the first one of the sub-regionsenclosing the first object of interest to the second selected one of thewatcher devices and assigning the second one of the sub-regionsenclosing the second object of interest to the first selected one of thewatcher devices when the second network bandwidth is greater than thefirst network bandwidth.
 9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:assigning a watch priority to the detected objects of interest,determining that a first object of interest from the detected objects ofinterest has a watch priority that is higher than a watch priority of asecond object of interest from the detected objects of interest;determining that a first selected one of the watcher devices is includedwith a first display area and a second selected one of the watcherdevices is included with a second display area; and wherein assigningcomprises: assigning a first one of the sub-regions enclosing the firstobject of interest to the first selected one of the watcher devices andassigning a second one of the sub-regions enclosing the second object ofinterest to the second selected one of the watcher devices when thefirst display area is larger than the second display area; and assigningthe first one of the sub-regions enclosing the first object of interestto the second selected one of the watcher devices and assigning thesecond one of the sub-regions enclosing the second object of interest tothe first selected one of the watcher devices when the second displayarea is larger than the first display area.
 10. The method of claim 1,further comprising: determining a count of the objects of interestenclosed in each of the sub-regions; determining that a count of theobjects of interest enclosed in a first one of the sub-regions isgreater than a count of the objects of interest enclosed in a second oneof the sub-regions; and determining that a first selected one of thewatcher devices is operating with a first network bandwidth and a secondselected one of the watcher devices is operating with a second networkbandwidth; and wherein assigning comprises: assigning the first one ofthe sub-regions to the first selected one of the watcher devices andassigning the second one of the sub-regions to the second selected oneof the watcher devices when the first network bandwidth is greater thanthe second network bandwidth; and assigning the first one of thesub-regions to the second selected one of the watcher devices andassigning the second one of the sub-regions to the first selected one ofthe watcher devices when the second network bandwidth is greater thanthe first network bandwidth.
 11. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: determining a count of the objects of interest enclosed ineach of the sub-regions; determining that a count of the objects ofinterest enclosed in a first one of the sub-regions is greater than acount of the objects of interest enclosed in a second one of thesub-regions; and determining that a first selected one of the watcherdevices is included with a first display area and a selected second oneof the watcher devices is included with a second display area; andwherein assigning comprises: assigning the first one of the sub-regionsto the first selected one of the watcher devices and assigning thesecond one of the sub-regions to the second selected one of the watcherdevices when the first display area is larger than the second displayarea; and assigning the first one of the sub-regions to the secondselected one of the watcher devices and assigning the second one of thesub-regions to the first selected one of the watcher devices when thesecond display area is larger than the first display area.
 12. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: determining a count of theobjects of interest enclosed in each of the sub-regions; determiningthat a count of the objects of interest enclosed in a first one of thesub-regions is greater than a count of the objects of interest enclosedin a second one of the sub-regions; and determining that a firstselected one of the watcher devices is associated with a first cognitiveload and a second selected one of the watcher devices is associated witha second cognitive load; wherein assigning comprises: assigning thefirst one of the sub-regions to the first selected one of the watcherdevices and the second one of the sub-regions to the second selected oneof the watcher devices when the first cognitive load is lower than thesecond cognitive load; and assigning the first one of the sub-regions tothe second selected one of the watcher devices and the second one of thesub-regions to the first selected one of the watcher devices when thesecond cognitive load is lower than the first cognitive load.
 13. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: providing, at the electroniccomputing device, a graphical user interface indicating the assignmentof each of the sub-regions to the respectively selected one of thewatcher devices, the graphical user interface further including a visualmap showing a spatial arrangement of the sub-regions relative to thefield-of-view of the camera.
 14. The method of claim 13, furthercomprising: modifying assignment of one or more of the sub-regions to adifferent one of the watcher devices in response to a user inputreceived at the graphical user interface.
 15. The method of claim 14,further comprising: receiving a user input adjusting boundary of the oneor more sub-regions thereby resulting in the formation of a differentset of sub-regions each enclosing at least one of the detected objectsof interest; and responsively assigning, at the electronic computingdevice, based on the one or more video display characteristicsassociated with the watcher devices, each of the different set ofsub-regions to a respectively re-selected one of the watcher devices;and causing, at the electronic computing device, transmission of videostreams respectively captured corresponding to each of the assigneddifferent set of sub-regions of interest to the respectively re-selectedone of the watcher devices.
 16. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: subsequent to transmitting the video streams, monitoringwatcher status corresponding to the video streams respectivelytransmitted to each of the selected one of the watcher devices;determining that the watcher status corresponding to a first one of theselected one of the watcher devices indicates an inactive status, andresponsively re-assigning a first one of the sub-regions assigned to thefirst one of the selected one of the watcher devices to a second one ofthe selected one of the watcher devices to which a second one of thesub-regions is previously assigned; and wherein subsequent tore-assigning the first one of the sub-regions to the second one of theselected one of the watcher devices, causing transmission of videostreams respectively captured corresponding to both the first one of thesub-regions and second one of the sub-regions to the second one of theselected one of the watcher devices.
 17. An electronic computing device,comprising: a transceiver; and an electronic processor communicativelycoupled to the transceiver, wherein the electronic processor isconfigured to: obtain context information associated with an incident;detect, as a function of the context information, a plurality of objectsof interest within a field-of-view of a camera; obtain one or more videodisplay characteristics associated with a plurality of watcher devices;determine, based on respective positions of the objects of interestwithin the field-of-view, a plurality of sub-regions of thefield-of-view, each of the sub-regions enclosing at least one of thedetected objects of interest and has one or more video attributes;assign, based on the one or more video display characteristicsassociated with the watcher devices and the one or more video attributesof the sub-regions, each of the sub-regions to a respectively selectedone of the watcher devices; and cause transmission of video streamsrespectively captured corresponding to each of the assigned sub-regionsof interest to the respectively selected one of the watcher devices. 18.The electronic computing device of claim 17, further comprising: anelectronic display screen providing a graphical user interfaceindicating the assignment of each of the sub-regions to the respectivelyselected one of the watcher devices, the graphical user interfacefurther including a visual map showing a spatial arrangement of thesub-regions relative to the field-of-view of the camera.
 19. Theelectronic computing device of claim 17, wherein the one or more videodisplay characteristics include a size, shape, orientation, aspectratio, resolution, rotatability, expandability, or foldability of anelectronic display respectively associated with the watcher devices,wherein the electronic processor is configured to determine whether thesize, shape, orientation, aspect ratio, or resolution of the electronicdisplay associated with the watcher devices correlates with the videoattributes of the sub-regions and assign each of the sub-regions to therespectively selected one of the watcher devices when the size, shape,orientation, aspect ratio, resolution, rotatability, expandability, orfoldability of the electronic display associated with the respectivelyselected one of the watcher devices correlates with the video attributesof the respectively assigned sub-regions.
 20. The electronic computingdevice of claim 19, wherein the electronic processor is configured toassign each of the sub-regions to the respectively selected one of thewatcher devices further based on one or more of: network bandwidthassociated with the watcher devices; covert mode status associated withthe watcher devices; a count of objects of interest enclosed in each ofthe sub regions; or a watch priority associated with each of the objectsof interest enclosed in each of the sub-regions.